


Ink Blots

by muridae



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hogwarts, Homework, Muggle Astronomy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24718552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muridae/pseuds/muridae
Summary: Ted Tonks doesn't always pay as much attention in Astronomy lessons as he should.
Relationships: Andromeda Black & Ted Tonks, Andromeda Black/Ted Tonks
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Ink Blots

Ted Tonks dipped his quill once more, then shook it gently but cautiously until he spied two small black dots dropping back into the glass ink bottle. He supposed he should wipe the quill off and mend the nib, since it had spent most of the evening being scratchy and coming up dry, but his homework was almost done, and time spent on a repair job would also be time wasted from the remaining half hour he had in the library before Madam Pince chased students out and back to their house common rooms at nine o’clock.

Touching the quill down gently on his parchment, he made a cautious stroke and, when nothing disastrous happened, moved it over to complete the outline of a rather rugby-shaped sphere intended to depict Saturn’s moon Mimas.

He lifted the quill again to shift position to the centre of Mimas, then with tongue between teeth began the tricky task of transfiguring his usual untidy spider scrawl into a legible printing of the moon’s name. It was going well until the final letter, when he pressed too enthusiastically on the page and the troublesome quill regurgitated ink from some black hole reservoir known only to itself, creating an ugly blot very nearly the size of his moon. 

“Damn.”

Ted swore, and reached frantically for blotting paper, hoping to absorb the excess before it ruined his astronomy homework entirely.

“Problem?”

“Only that I hate you.” Ted glared across the table to where Andromeda Black was putting the finishing touches to her own chart of Saturn, all straight lines and circular circles and clear neat labels in a tidy hand. And then she looked up, soft dark eyes peeping from under a fringe of chestnut hair and his look softened, as it always did.

“Hate me? Why?”

“Because _you_ are in the process of finishing the best chart of Saturn by anyone in the fifth year. And _I_ have just given one of Saturn’s moons an unscheduled eclipse.”

“Oh dear.” Andromeda craned her neck to study his chart upside down. Not that orientation was going to matter. The black circle on his parchment was probably visible from the other end of the library.

“Cover the blot by painting the moons black,” she said helpfully. “Label them to the side instead. Or…” she ducked her head beneath the desk to rummage in her bag, “I’ve got some white ink in here. Wait until the black ink has dried and label them with that.”

“What, risk more printing? Including redoing the labels I’ve already done? My quill has it in for me; I’m sure it’s itching to expel a few more blots. What are the chances of Saturn still having just the ten moons by the time I’m done?”

“Eighty two,” said Andromeda, lifting her own parchment so that she could blow across the surface to dry her ink.

“Eighty two?” Ted raised an eyebrow. “You’re mad, woman. There are ten of the pesky misshapen things.”

Andromeda shook her head slowly. “Eighty two moons. Honestly, Ted. Weren’t you listening in Astronomy last night at all? And even if you weren’t, what would give you the idea there were only ten moons?” She angled her page towards the light, squinting to look for the telltale shine of still wet ink. Satisfied that it was dry, she rolled it up neatly, and rested one palm on the resulting scroll to stop it coming undone again.

“Mrs Clelland in my fourth year at junior school,” said Ted. “We did a map of the solar system and plastered it all over the classroom walls. Everybody got assigned a planet or a sun or something. And I got Saturn’s moons.

“Oh,” said Andromeda in a tone of illumination. “You’re talking about _Muggle_ astronomy.”

“You say that like it’s somehow inferior.”

“Well,” said Andromeda, a little smugly. “You Muggles do apparently only think that Saturn has ten moons. How many do they think Jupiter has?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Defeatist.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote 99% of this in 2007, then paused to check how many moons Saturn had. And then mislaid the file.
> 
> The number has changed several times in the meantime. At the time of posting it's 82. I'm assuming that the wizards knew the right number all along, but I can't swear it won't change the next time someone points a telescope in that direction.
> 
> The time at which this story takes place would be late '60s/early '70s, at which point Saturn's tenth moon had been discovered (in 1966) and the eleventh was still a way off (in 1977). The Muggles had a bit of catching up to do.


End file.
